PolicyPak Java Rules Manager: Use Group Policy to dictate which version of Java for what website

PolicyPak Java Rules Manager: Use Group Policy to dictate which version of Java for what website

Configure websites to use the version of Java you choose, or block Java websites entirely – this demo uses Group Policy. Making a Java Deployment Rule Set for your Enterprise has never been easier or more flexible.

PolicyPak Java Rules Manager: Use Group Policy to dictate which version of Java for what website

Hi. This is Jeremy Moskowitz. In this video, I’m going to show you how you can dictate specific websites to utilize a specific version of Java that’s installed on your Windows machines.

Here you can see on this Windows 10 machine I have “Java 7 Update 51,” “Java 8 Update 25” and “Java 8 Update 111.” On this machine, I also have the same things. This is a Windows 7 machine, and I have “Java 7 Update 51,” “Java 8 Update 25” and “Java 8 Update 111.”

You know the deal. The deal is that if you use “Mozilla Firefox” or Internet Explorer and go to a particular website, it’s going to just default to – well, let’s take a look – it’s going to know and see the latest version of Java instead of maybe the version of Java you want to use.

If I go to java.com here, it’s going to only find the latest version or whatever the most recent version you have that’s installed. But that’s not what you want to do. Typically, you have internal applications or third-party apps that only work perfectly for the right version of Java. We’re going to map the website to the right version of Java for you, and we’re going to do that right now.

Over here on my “Sales” OU, I’m going to do a “PP Java Rules Demo” here. Click “Edit” on the GPO. We’ll do this on the computer side. All the Java Rules Manager stuff has to happen on the computer side, and then every user on that computer is affected.
We’ll go to “Add/New Policy” here. We’ll start out with “java.org.” We’ll go ahead and say “https://java.com,” so we’ll copy that guy. We don’t want to us the “Default.” That would just figure out the latest version I have. What I want to do is I want to tie that down to “Run” version “Java SE 7 Update 51” that I have. A little bit old and crusty, but maybe that’s what I want.

What I’ll also do is create another rule for another website, and that other website is “javatester.org.” I’ll go ahead and put that here. I want to make javatester.org “Run,” but I don’t want it to use the latest version. I want it to show “Java SE 8 Update 25.” There we go. So I’m setting both of those up. It’s just as simple as that.

I’ve done the mapping. I’m going to go ahead and close this out and run GP Update (“gpupdate”) on my endpoints. While this is cooking here, I’ll just go ahead and let this settle in. It doesn’t really matter which browser I use, if I use Internet Explorer or Firefox. So I’ll use Internet Explorer on Windows 10 here and I’ll use Firefox on the other machine. It doesn’t really matter.

If I go to “Internet Explorer” on Windows 10 and if I were to go to “java.com,” let’s see what version it reports now. “Do I have Java?” Remember, before it only showed the latest version, but now we’re teaching it to use “Your Java version: Version 7 Update 51.” If I were to go to “javatester.org” and “Test the version of Java used in this browser,” I’m going to get “Java Version: 1.8.0_25.” So we’re not “seeing” the latest version.

If I were to go over to a different operating system and use “Mozilla Firefox” and just do the same test, go to “java.com” and “Do I have Java?” it’s going to say exactly the same thing because both of these computers are in the same OU so they’re getting exactly the same settings. You can see we get “Version 7 Update 51” here. If I go to “javatester.org,” we get “Java Version:1.8.0_25.” It’s as simple as that. You can dictate what website is going to run what version of Java, provided that Java is on that machine.

I have one last thing I want to show you here which is about blocking. For instance, let’s say you find out that users are going to a website that maybe they shouldn’t go to. For instance, I go over to this website here. It’s another Java tester actually. It happens to be “nasa.gov.”

Wait a minute. Something’s wrong. There’s something wrong with the certificate here between the website and the Java, but they can just click “Run” and run it anyway and it runs just fine. But who knows? Maybe this thing is naughty. How can we block this if that’s something we want to do?

We’ll go back over to the rule. We’ll right click and “Add/New Policy” here. This time we’ll say “No Nasa for you.” Sorry, NASA. I’m a big fan, but not in this case. We’ll go ahead and say the “Location” is that website. This time, I’m going to “Block” and put a message in here: “Your IT Dept. Says this is Just Not OK.” You can put whatever message you want in there. I’ll go ahead and click “OK” here.

Now I’m blocking a specific website. You can do this with a couple of different criteria. I’m doing it the fastest way possible here. I’ll run GP Update (“gpupdate”). I’ll only show you on this machine to keep the time low. Okay, that’s all set.

Now let’s go back over. It doesn’t matter if you’re using “Mozilla Firefox” or Internet Explorer here. Now if we go ahead and try to go to that website that we went to earlier, the website loads. That’s just fine. Java, however, when you say to go to “Continue” it as a standard user, you then get “Blocked.” The “Reason” is “Your IT Dept. Says this is Just Not OK.”

So you get to dictate what websites will run with which version of Java. And also, if there’s a particular Java applet on a website you don’t want to run, you can block it and give them a reason. That is PolicyPak Java Rules Manager in a nutshell. We have a couple more videos. Check them out.

If you’re ready to get started, just join us for a webinar and we’ll hand over the bits. You can start real soon.